Courtesy of the North American Vexillological Association - Copyright ©2001, Richard R. Gideon
THE WHISKEY FLAGS
An intoxicating look into a sobering subject
By Richard R. Gideon
The Whiskey Rebellion, or Whiskey Insurrection, is often portrayed as a
local riot over a tax on Whiskey. This
is only partially true; while the enforcement action took place in one area –
western Pennsylvania – opposition to the tax occurred in the western regions
of every state from Pennsylvania to Georgia, and the state of Kentucky. And while this article focuses on events in
Pennsylvania, there were international intrigues that far transcended Whiskey,
and reached into the Washington administration itself. The Whiskey Rebellion involved concepts of
government that are still debated to this day.
Many of the issues raised during the event would resurface 67 years later
in the American “Civil War”.
In writing about the flags used during the Whiskey Rebellion the vexillologist faces a daunting task. First, this important event in America’s history is almost universally unknown or poorly understood. Therefore it is necessary to spend considerable time studying the social and political climate of the 1790’s in order to understand the role flags played on both the “rebel” and federalist sides. Second, there are few actual flags from that event that have survived to this day. Fortunately, the participants described both flags and signs used during the unrest. A short article such as this one will leave many details untouched, but hopefully it will adduce enough salient points to, at the least, make an impression.
HISTORY
With the Revolutionary War
over, the newly created Federal government decided to assume the war debts of
the individual states. In 1791 Congress
placed an excise tax on whiskey; an idea suggested by Secretary of the Treasury
Alexander Hamilton as a measure to help retire the national debt.[1] While East Coast distilleries made almost no
objection to the excise, farmers on the frontier - which was anything west of
the Allegheny Mountains - immediately took the tax as a personal assault[2]. These hardy western men were mostly of
English, Scots, Irish, or Scots-Irish origin, and opposition to excise taxes
was part of their heritage[3]. George Dallas Albert, writing in the History of the County of Westmoreland[4],
describes their attitude as follows: “Thus
from necessity its [the Whiskey Tax] collection
demands a system of surveillance and of espionage on the labor and industries
of the people….” and “..to kill an
excise man would cover a multitude of sins.” Whiskey was not only the drink of choice amongst the inhabitants
of the West, but it served, as one wit put it, as money, medicine, and
mendacity. Many western distillers did
not pay the excise, and if arrested had to make expensive trips to Philadelphia
for trial. But the Whiskey tax was just
part of a growing unrest in the west.
By
1794 many frontiersmen had become disenchanted with the federal
government. Frontiersmen were, for the
most part, desperately poor, and many did not own land. Money was hard to come by; farmers didn't
see $20 a year in hard currency. Living
conditions had actually deteriorated from the time of the Revolutionary
War. To improve their lives, western
citizens had three goals; 1) they wanted the Army to put down the Indian raids,
which were occurring more frequently than they had during the Revolution; 2)
they wanted the Mississippi river - then controlled by Spain - opened to
navigation, thus allowing western farm goods and furs to be polled down the
Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans; and 3) frontiersmen in various areas of
the country wanted to incorporate into their own States. This had actually happened in western North
Carolina; in 1784 the people there formed the State of Franklin, electing a
governor and representatives. In
western Pennsylvania the proposed State was to be called Westsylvania.[5] It was this last aspect - a desire for local
autonomy - that made many officials in both state and federal governments very
nervous. States were not enthusiastic
about giving up large portions of their territory. New territorial governments in what were now buffer zones might
seek alliances with Spain or Britain.
Indeed, by the time of the Whiskey Rebellion there were already reports
of overtures being made to and by local leaders in western Pennsylvania and
Kentucky.[6]
The
federal government, for its part, recognized the value of western lands and the
need to move produce to more commercially lucrative markets. George Washington had proposed a canal
between the Monogehelia and Potomac rivers; a project he supported all his
political life. But recognizing the value of western inhabitants was another
matter. They were not very highly
thought of by many of the officials of the new federal government, including
Washington, and almost anyone else in the more civilized East.[7] The diary of a woman who made the trip into
the frontier is full of frank observations about western farmers, whom she
called “ignorant, drunk, dirty, blasphemous, and about as wild as the Indians.”[8] One of the favorite pastimes of western men
was eye gouging, which occurred regularly during Sunday morning contests of
manhood.
Enter
now the excise tax. And while the
western farmer may not have been able to read or write, he did know an assault
on liberty when he saw it. In turn he
assaulted the tax collector, using such time-honored techniques as verbal and
physical intimidation, tar and feathers, and selective house burnings. The propertied and educated men of the
Pittsburgh region were not as pyretic as their country neighbors, but most of
them were against the excise as well.[9] Most, that is, except for a few
acquaintances of George Washington. One
of Washington's boyhood friends, John Neville, owned about 1000 acres of land
along Chartiers cheek.[10] He built a large clapboard home – the
country inhabitants called it a mansion – on Bower Hill, about 7 miles
Southwest of Pittsburgh. Neville had
been a General in the Revolutionary Army and was once popular with the locals;
a man noted for his charity and opposition to the Commonwealth’s excise
tax. But when he supported Washington
and became the chief excise collector he became just another rich,
slave-holding aristocrat.[11]
Events
came to a head in July of 1794 when Neville led United States Marshal David
Lennox to the farm of William Miller.
The marshal proposed to serve Miller with a writ to appear in
Philadelphia[12] and answer
charges of refusing to enroll his Whiskey still. Men working in the fields got wind of what was happening, and
with rifles in hand raced toward Neville and the marshal. Shots rang out, but no one was hit and the
pair beat a hasty retreat. Another
popular Revolutionary War hero, Captain James McFarlane, led the local militia
to Neville's mansion, demanding that Neville quit his post and turn over all excise
records to McFarlane. The request sparked
a two-day confrontation between soldiers sent from Ft. Pitt to protect
Neville. On the second day shots were
exchanged and McFarlane was killed.
Momentarily stunned, participants on the militia side cried foul, saying
that McFarlane had been lured out into the open by what he thought was a
request for a conference. Bewilderment
soon turned to rage, and the Neville home, barn, & some slave quarters were
burned to the ground.
FLAGS
Even prior to the attack at the Neville plantation
protest flags had started to make their appearance. It is
clear from the written evidence of the time, and from the
research of many respected writers and historians, that these “rebel flags”
fall into one of two categories: scripted flags and simple striped flags. According to Leyland Baldwin, “Liberty poles bearing devices such as the
familiar revolutionary emblem of a snake divided, or with inscriptions such as
‘An Equal Tax, and No Excise’, were being erected at many places in the
Monongahela country.”[13]
After Neville’s home was burned the rebels held several meeting to discuss
their options. In his book, “The
History of Washington 
County,” Boyd Crumrine describes a meeting at which
was raised “..a liberty pole, from which
floated a flag bearing the inscription, ‘Equal Taxation and no Excise – No
Asylum for Traitors and Cowards.’”[14] Writing on the occasion of the bicentennial
of the Rebellion, Jerry Clouse writes:
“It [a liberty pole]
could elevate an official flag or banner, or a home-made version, most often
inscribed with the words ‘Equal Taxation and No Excise’ or ‘Liberty and
Equality.’”[15] Published by the Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania, Clouse’s book also has an interesting comment about a rebel flag
raised in Hagerstown, Maryland.
Speaking of the Federal government’s attempt to draft men to fight the
“Whiskey Boys,” Clouse describes the reaction of the local militia: “Militiamen
‘beat their officers from the field,’ and raised a liberty pole with a flag
inscribed with the words ‘Liberty or Death.’”[16] Historian David C. Knight also adduces
contemporary evidence concerning scripted flags, and writes, “Often they [liberty poles] bore the familiar revolutionary emblems of a
snake divided, with streamers or flags bearing inscriptions such as ‘An Equal
Tax and No Excise O Whiskey.’”[17]
At
one gathering the rebels raised a liberty pole with a flag featuring six
bars. Hugh Henry Brackenridge, a
moderate who was opposed to both the tax and the violence, specifically
mentions this flag in a book he wrote about the rebellion. “At
Parkinson’s Ferry, I think it was the morning of the second day, one was raised
with a flag with six stripes, emblematical of the six counties there
represented.”[18]
Brackenridge’s
son, Hugh Marie, would write later of ‘stars’ in the flag. When President Washington sent commissioners
on a fact-finding trip to Pittsburgh, “A
riotous and disorderly assemblage raised a liberty pole before the lodgings of
the commissioners, and would have run up a flag with seven stars for the four
western counties, and for Bedford and the two counties of Virginia, but this
was prevented by the well disposed citizens, who prevailed on them to
substitute the flag of the fifteen States.”[19]
Thomas P. Slaughter, in an
exhaustive study of the post revolutionary period, speaks of ‘rebel flags’
flying throughout the western Pennsylvania area.
Another respected researcher, Anthony A. Martin,
wrote an article about Whiskey flags for the National Flag Foundation’s (NFF)
“The STANDARD BEARER” magazine.[20] Martin, Director Emeritus of the Carnegie
Library of Pittsburgh, and a librarian and researcher for NFF, drew upon the
some of the works sited above, plus many others. Martin writes that at one meeting the rebels unfurled a flag of “six stars and six bars” and “…yet another had 7 stars and 7 bars,
representing 5 Pennsylvania counties and 2 Virginia counties.”[21]
What
all these described flags have in common is simplicity and an anti-Federal
theme. Again, if one looks at the
politics and people of the region the anti-Federal theme is not
surprising. The people of western
Pennsylvania (and many other western regions) were NOT, for the most part,
federalists. They did not support the
US Constitution when it was first moved for a vote; in fact, the local
Congressman, William Findley, voted against it. Even those men who were in favor of the Constitution – Hugh Henry
Brackenridge for example – definitely were not in favor of a tax that favored
the East at the detriment of the West, and were highly suspicious of the
intentions of the Washington administration.
Amongst the Whiskey Rebels were men who had fought in the American
Revolution, and they took the rhetoric and symbolism of the time
seriously. They were very much in favor
of the French Revolution (remember, the year is 1794) and against “Eastern
aristocrats.” So it makes perfect sense
that the flags they would employ would reprise American Revolutionary
themes. Also one must remember that
most of rebels were poor (or frugal) farmers, and that highly intricate flags
would probably not be within their means.
So when the correspondents of the time describe rebel flags they give us
a glimpse of simple patters and/or scripted fabrics that have not,
unfortunately, survived to this day.
The one they don’t mention, however, is a flag that actually exists,
mounted in a frame, and hanging on the wall in the bar of the Century Inn in
Scenery Hill, Pennsylvania.
A blue field flag of modest dimensions, it contains
the device of an eagle holding a ribbon it its beak, and thirteen six-pointed
stars scattered about the field. Sold
in flag stores across America, this handsome and interesting flag has for years
been associated with the Whiskey Rebellion. Anthony Martin says that part of
the reason for this is the description of it given by Admiral William Furlong
in his book “So Proudly We Hail,”
published by the Smithsonian Institution.
In his comments Furlong says that it is “an unusual flag, believed to be used by the Whiskey Rebels…”.[22] But Martin points out that no contemporary
accounts mention this flag. In his NFF
article Martin says, “Several facts
support my theory that the Scenery Hill flag was, at best, a relatively minor
Whiskey Rebellion flag, and most likely designed and produced post-rebellion.”[23] Martin makes several points to support his
theory, but his major point - that if one assumes this flag was a rebel flag
then the symbolism is wrong - cannot be easily dismissed. Remember that we are discussing a flag used
by poor farmers and radicals, possessed of limited resources. The Scenery Hill flag is made of silk, with
an intricate Federal pattern.
Perhaps, however, there is a better explanation.
The
vexillologist may look at the Scenery Hill flag and wonder whether he or she
hasn’t seen it someplace before. Grace
Rogers Cooper, in her monograph entitled “Thirteen-Star
Flags, Keys to Identification,” writes of the fabric used by the Army in
the late 18th century. Her
conclusion is that the two predominate materials were silk and wool. She also notes the use of the “eagle-and-star
canton” in post-Revolutionary War flags.[24] According to Cooper, the earliest use of
“thirteen stars and eagle” stripped flags is 1784. Since Army regimental flags were often just blue fields with the
Arms of the United States painted or embroidered upon them, could the Scenery
Hill flag have some relationship to the Federal
army and not the rebel one? One might
argue against this theory on the basis of the flag’s rather small size;
however, there are many 18th century Army regimental flags that do not
measure the customary six feet square.
We must also remember that there was a substantial Federal presence in
western Pennsylvania. There was a US
fort in Pittsburgh, and the army did conduct several sorties against the
Indians in the 1790’s. There were also
civilian Federalists living in the area, although it is highly unlikely that
they would be so bold as to display a federal flag during the height of the
unrest.[25]
Washington
Responds
The
Whiskey Rebels had proposed to march on Pittsburgh and take Ft. Pitt, but two
important things happened: First, the rebel leaders decided to put on a show a
force instead of assaulting the fort; and second, the citizens of Pittsburgh
passed out free Whiskey to the rebels when they arrived, and told them they
were on their side. But by this time,
however, Washington had had enough. He sent 12,950[26]
hastily organized states’ militia across the mountains from Carlisle,
Pennsylvania and Cumberland, Maryland, to put down the rebellion. The march
began in September with troops that were about as disciplined as the “Whiskey
Boys”, and only half of them made it to Pittsburgh. Along the way they managed to kill two innocent people; a young
boy and an intoxicated man who had the nerve to toast the success of the
"Whiskey Boys" in front of a squad of soldiers. President Washington himself led the troops
to Bedford, PA, then turned the army over to General Henry "Light Horse
Harry" Lee, a fellow Virginian and one of Washington's favorite generals
during the Revolution.[27] The whole episode turned into an anti-climax;
by the time the army arrived in Pittsburgh the rebellion had burned itself out,
and many of the local actors had moved on to Kentucky or other western regions.
This type of law enforcement helped turn
westerners toward the new Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson;
himself distrustful of powerful central governments. However, it established
once and for all the power of the new government to raise money by
taxation.
The Whiskey Rebellion shook the Washington Administration. Washington wrote both publicly and in his diary about the danger to order posed by the insurgents. At the time of the action in western Pennsylvania the French Revolution was in full swing, and the frontiersman identified with the French radicals. The US government would later take drastic measures to insure order in the new country, adopting the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Washington had
problems in his own administration over both the “Whiskey Boys” and
international relations. A letter from
the French Minister to his government fell into Washington’s hands. The letter was full of critical remarks made
by Secretary of State Edmund Randolph
against Washington’s handling of the Whiskey affair. Washington confronted Randolph, and the Secretary of State
resigned.
CONCLUSION
It is the conclusion of this writer that the Whiskey Tax rebels or protestors used flags of simple patterns, probably mostly scripted or striped; that during this period the Federal army used well documented regimental type flags, featuring variations of the Arms of the United States; and that the economy of the western Pennsylvania area, and the mindset of the farmers, was such that it is unlikely that the rebels would produce a blue silk flag with Federal symbolism. And it is also clear that while the bulk of the enforcement action took place in western Pennsylvania, rebel flags could be found in other states as well. Flags used in western Virginia and western Maryland have been documented by contemporary writers, and make a tempting research subject for the vexillologist.
The Whiskey Rebellion was the
major event of its time, and that it is not well studied and understood is a
national disgrace. That said, I will
let President Washington have the last words:
"This Government, the offspring of
your own choice uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and
mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of
its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a
provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your
support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in
its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty.
The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to
alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time
exists till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is
sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the
people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey
the established government.” ......GEORGE WASHINGTON
Bibliography:
Albert, George Dallas: History of the County of Westmoreland. Published by L. H. Everts & Co., Philadelphia, 1882
American Historical Society, The: History of Pittsburgh - Volume 2, Published 1922
Baldwin, Leland B.: Whiskey Rebels: A Story of a Frontier Uprising. Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, 1939
Brackenridge, Hugh Henry: Incidents of the Insurrection in the Western
Parts of Pennsylvania in the Year 1794. Published by
John McCulloch Philadelphia, 1795.
Brackenridge, Hugh Henry: Law Miscellanies. Published by
P. Byrne, Philadelphia, 1814.
Brackenridge, Hugh Marie: History of the Western Insurrection – 1794. Published by W. S. Haven, Pittsburgh, 1859.
Cooper, Grace Rogers: Thirteen-Star Flags, A Key to Identification. Published by the
Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1973.
Jerry Clouse: The Whiskey Rebellion: Southwestern Pennsylvania Frontier
People test the American Constitution. Published by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania - 1994
Crumrine, Boyd: History of Washington County, PA. Published by L.H. Everts & Co., 1882
Gideon, Richard R.: Family Genealogy (Note: Some of the author’s family members were
involved in the Whiskey Rebellion)
Knight, David C.: The Whiskey Rebellion, 1794 Published
by Franklin Watts, Inc, 1968
Martin, Anthony A.: NFF Special Report – The Whiskey Rebellion, The Standard Bearer. Published by the National Flag Foundation
Slaughter, Thomas P.: The Whiskey Rebellion. Published by Oxford University Press, 1986
The Pittsburgh Gazette:
Various publications from 1791 to 1795